Setup Plex Media Server on Windows computer

Do you want to stream your media content, movies, music, photos, from computer to any other devices? Plex Media Server can turn your computer, Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, into a home media server and stream your media content across all your devices, iOS, Android, PS4, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Smart TVs, TiVo, Android Auto, Windows and several others.

In this article, we will show you the quick steps to setup Plex Media Server on a Windows 10 computer, access your home media server from mobile phone using the free version of Plex Media Player. You will learn the basics you need to know to make your home media server work.

Download & install Plex Media Player for Windows

Download the Plex Media Player from previous linked page. Install the media server on your PC just like you install any other software. Start the media server on your PC if you have not allowed it to run automatically. It can be accessed from the system tray in Windows.

Plex media server - windows 10 system tray
Plex media server – windows 10 system tray

Name Plex Media Server in Windows

You will then be redirected to the web app of the media server. You can manage your media server from its web interface using your desktop browsers. Sign in to your Plex account or sign up a new account if not yet. You can sign in using your Google account, Facebook account or email address. Once logged into the Plex media server, you can start configuring the server.

 Plex media server setup windows computer - server name
Plex media server setup windows computer – server name

Give a friendly name to your new Plex server that is easy to identify in Plex apps and on your network. On the same screen, it’ll also ask whether you want to access your media server outside your home. If you want to access your home media server remotely, say yes, it’ll do its best to automatically adjust your network settings so that you can access the media server from anywhere with an Internet connection. If you just to share your media content across all devices at home, don’t enable this option. If you changed your mind, you can turn it on or off from its settings anytime you want. We will skip this option for now.

Create libraries on Plex Media Server for Windows

The second step is to point Plex libraries toward the folders where you keep your movies, TV shows, music, and/or photos. By default, only the Music and Photos libraries will be created.

 Plex media server setup windows computer - add libraries
Plex media server setup windows computer – add libraries

Optionally you can point them to different locations on your PC or delete them. You can also create extra libraries now or later. Creating a new library on Plex server is easy. Just click the Add Library button, then choose your library type, Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos, Other Videos. Map it to a media folder on your computer hard drive. You can add as many libraries as you want, and you can have multiple libraries with the same type. You can go to copy or move more media files from other folders to the media library folder on your computer. Plex will scan for the media files from the specified location and folder or you can manually scan library files from Plex server web interface. Your sever is now ready.

Download Plex client apps

Now go to get the Plex apps onto any device you want to use to access media content on the server. Once you’ve downloaded the app for your device, Android, iPhone, PSP, Xbox One, or else, sign in using the same Plex account.You’ll be able to access whatever is in your Plex Media library, right away. 

 Plex media player for iPhone - movies
Plex media player for iPhone – movies

Let say with Plex app on iPhone, you can tap to open Movies tab at the screen bottom, then you will see a Recently Added Movies section with all new movies, videos added to the media server. You can quickly switch media sources between device or online source and the server from the top left corner.

 Plex media player for iPhone - music
Plex media player for iPhone – music

Free version playback limit

You can use the Plex apps for free as a Plex remote control. You can also fling media to other Plex apps, including photos, music and video on your device. If you want to stream media to other devices, you need to activate the premium feature with the one-time in-app purchase, or sign in as a Plex Pass subscriber. Otherwise, playback is limited to one minute.

Plex Players to connect Plex Server

If remote access is not enabled, you will have to connect both devices, the computer server and client device, to the same local network. Also they need to be logged into the same Plex account. Otherwise the Plex Player can’t connect to the server. You can access media content on server from any other Plex apps across various devices in the same local network without internet connection.